Bloomington Fire Department, IU, Netage: Real-time Service Information

The Challenge

Imagine that every day you went to work in a different building. Maybe you’ve been to the building before, maybe you haven’t. Now imagine that at random times you are asked to get to that building as FAST as possible, but without information about traffic or road construction or any obstacles that might be waiting for you when you arrive… 

You might think, “I can’t really do my job very well if you don’t give me the information that I need!” Yet, that was the process available to our firefighters at the Bloomington Fire Department (BFD) as recently as 2016. To get to the scene of a fire, they relied on paper maps, calls, and emails from 9-1-1 dispatchers for the latest information.

The Idea

Called “Project Innovation,” BFD partnered with Indiana University (IU) and software company Netage to install data screens in two of their five fire stations and tablets in their fire trucks. 

The devices provide real-time information to identify the quickest traffic route, fire hydrant locations, and other valuable information like what the building is made of. 

“This project is just the first step for us in using data-driven technology to save lives,” said Deputy Fire Chief Jayme Washel. 

This project, which was a 2017 Route Fifty Navigator Award Finalist, came to the Fire Department through Dr. David Wild, an IU associate professor in Informatics and Computing Technology interested in leveraging his skills to help our first responders. 

"This project will provide key, timely information to firefighters responding to incidents in Bloomington," said Wild.

The technical side of the project is led by Director of Systems for IU Research Technology Matt Link. He also served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT for 10 years in Benton Township, Indiana. Link hopes to use the data collected to perfect the technology, improve BFD’s performance and share this innovation with other schools and communities. 

The Cost

As a joint pilot project with IU and Netage, the City of Bloomington was able to use the service for free while it was being iterated from 2016 to 2018. Starting in 2019, the City will be responsible for 42% ($25,000) of the total cost ($60,000).

The Benefits

Per Chief Moore, “Up until this year (2019) this system has only been running as a prototype. The true power will come with the behind the scenes data. This system leverages "linked data" to provide us information about the buildings beyond response maps. We demoed out a similar product that used open source data but it cost nearly $75k per year. This also will come with several query tools that will help us answer questions about our community.”

Metadata

City Department: Fire Department

City Department Point(s) of Contact: Jason Moore (Fire Chief), Jayme Washel (Deputy Fire Chief)

Partner(s): IU School of Informatics, IU Research Technology, Netage

Partner Point(s) of Contact: David Wild, Matt Link

Type of Innovation: Technical/Software/Data Analysis 

Date Implemented: May 2016